"Dearest, look at you? Do you eat?" Shelagh asked when Tim arrived home.
Tim rolled his eyes feeling like he was fifteen and not twenty-five.
"Ignore her son, your mum just misses you," Patrick said as he gave Tim a quick hug.
"Tim, Tim… You've finally come home. I thought you never would!" Teddy exclaimed.
"Hey brat!" he said to Angela as he patted her head. She had her nose in a book and didn't greet him.
"Hey you're messing my hair!"
"Don't you have a hug for your ol' brother?" he asked pretending to have his feelings hurt. "What are you reading?"
"From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler… I can't put it down."
He smiled at the drama in her response.
"Then I suppose just Teddy and I will go to the cinema today. Come on Teddy, best be off or we'll miss the…"
"I'm coming!"
Angela jumped up. He felt her bump into him with a force, then she squeezed him around the waist and ran toward the coat rack.
"Come onTim. We can't be late!" Angela exclaimed.
Smiling at Mum and Dad, he gratefully took the couple of quid Dad held out to him.
"I'll feed them, so you can have some peace."
His dad gave him a grateful look, still he felt bad for relying on his father financially.
"Come on then… " He was followed out the door by his brother and sister.
##
"No Jules, you need to dress up," Kate said exasperated.
"It's only the cinema on a Saturday afternoon. It's not like it's tea at the Ritz."
Why am I even bothering? He is rather a bore.
Truthfully, Julie had not given much thought to Jim Albert in the fortnight since the party. Well at least she tried not to, but Kate had kept going on about him. She began to think that Kate should be going with him, but she was head over heels for Arthur.
When he finally called to ask her out a few days ago, she felt the unmistakable drop of disappointment in her gut. Remembering him at the party, Julie was concerned that he would be far to serious. He sounded reluctant when she chose a comedy. Surely he liked to laugh at a film. Julie had learned at a young age that the best way to get through life was with laughter.
Before she left home she was always being called upon to help her mum with her little siblings. By the time she was sixteen, she felt as if she had already raised her own children. When she wasn't helping her mum she was often minding the neighbor's children. Ironically she quite enjoyed minding children who were not related to her.
Unfortunately university was not in her future. Her father expected her to earn her own keep, so secretarial training was her best option. If she could have chosen her own future, she would have been a teacher. Laughter was what helped get her through a life with very few choices. She couldn't imagine a life without fun and Jim didn't seem like he was very much fun.
Because of Kate's insistence, she would give him a chance, but she was perfectly happy to home alone. Being surrounded by the rowdy engineers all day was enough for her. Her mother was convinced that she was already an old maid, but at twenty-three she was not ready to get a pair of cats yet. It wasn't the fifties anymore. The seventies was a new era and a girl didn't need a husband the minute she finished school, in fact some girls even had real careers.
Upon arriving at the cinema, she scanned the lobby, but Jim was not there. Glancing at her watch, she realized she was early and relaxed. To amuse herself, she watched the other patrons and tried to make up stories about them.
A young woman and older man, she decided where having a scandalous affair. She had some thoughts inappropriate for even Victoria Holt. When the girl called the man, dad, Julie laughed at her foolish ideas.
One mistake didn't stop her from continuing, until she glanced at her watch to see it was well past the arranged time for her and Jim to meet. In fact, the movie that she hoped to see had already begun. She felt foolish having stood there for so long. Perhaps she should leave.
Just as she was looking at her watch again, she heard a young boy complaining, "Tim, Angela called me stupid!"
Then she heard a deeper voice respond. "Ange be nice to Teddy. Neither of you are stupid. Apologize or I'll tell on you."
She looked up, because that definitely didn't sound like a father. When she saw the man with the two children she recognized him, but where had she seen him before?
His eyes sparked with recognition and he said, "Oh hello. It's Julie isn't it?"
"Yes, um…" she suddenly remembered the piano, but couldn't remember his name.
"Tim, Tim Turner and these are my sister and brother. Are you going to a film?"
"I was, but my friend hasn't come and now it has started."
"We're off to the chippy around the corner, if you like you can join us," he invited her.
Julie wasn't certain it was great idea, but she looked in the sweet face of the small boy and remembered how his older brother made her laugh.
Smiling she said, "I'd like that and will you be my escort?"
She reached out her hand to the boy and he took it as if it was the most natural thing for him to hold her hand. She couldn't remember the last time she had been with children. Her brothers and sisters hadn't been small for some time.
As they walked, she asked, "Teddy, what is that short for?"
"Ted," the boy answered.
Tim smiled and not just with his mouth, but his eyes which sparkled. "He's called Edward."
"I only answer to Teddy," the boy said emphatically.
"Well tell Mum and Dad. They named you," their sister teased.
The three siblings seemed to get on which was odd given quite an obvious age difference. Remembering Tim telling her about his new mum, she assumed she was the mother of his siblings.
"I play football. Do you like football?"
The lad asked as if their friendship hinged on her answer.
"I do. My brother played a bit and my dad likes The Blues."
"We only like The Reds," Teddy declared proudly. With his face turning serious he asked, Are you a Toffee?"
Julie laughed, "Oh please... Brighton"
Teddy declared, "That's alright then."
Tim spoke up and said, "I knew you weren't from London."
She was about to respond when Ted said, "I haven't decided yet. I'm going to either play for Liverpool or be a doctor, like my dad and my brother."
She was amused by his future plans before she could respond.
Their sister said, "I'm going to be a doctor too."
"You can't be a doctor! You need to be a nurse like Mum," Teddy said.
"I can too, Mum said I could right, Tim?" she asked her older brother.
"Yes Angela, you can be anything you want to be."
"Well I want to be a doctor," and turning to Julie she asked, "What do you want to be?"
"Well I'm a secretary, but I always wanted to be a teacher," she explained.
"Do you like children?" Tim asked.
"Yes, very much so."
"Obviously I do as well." He indicated to his siblings with a tilt of his head and a wide grin.
She decided that she liked his smile and returned it with one of her own.
##
When Julie smiled at him, he felt warm under the collar. He hoped that his face wasn't red. He hadn't had a girl since before his medical training and would really like to take her out without competing with Teddy. Still he couldn't help noticing the way she treated his brother and she was certainly amused by him. Most girls would grow tired of a lad age ten demanding their attention.
Even Angela joined in when Teddy allowed. She said, "I like your curls. Mine is straight."
Without thinking Tim said, "We all have straight hair Angela."
Angela argued, "Mum's isn't. Not like mine."
Angela was adopted and had been told, but even Tim often forgot their bond was not one of blood.
"Your hair is beautiful. I always wished I had straight hair," Julie said.
Tim liked her hair. He wished he could wrap his finger around a strand of it. He suspected that it would make a ringlet.
They finished eating, but as they walked to the Tube, it was clear they were headed in different directions.
Julie said, "Thank you for dinner."
Tim smiled and said, "If I didn't have…" He tilted his head towards the children who were currently amusing themselves jumping over cracks on the footway. "I would offer to walk you home. Would you.. um you like to go out sometime with just me?"
##
She couldn't help, but smile because he winked when he said, just me.
"I'm afraid my new boyfriend might be jealous," she teased.
"Oh you were meeting a chap then..."
Tim sounded defeated. Flustered, because her joke failed, she said, "Actually yes, but no… I meant Teddy."
"Oh! He may well be."
Julie decided that she really liked his smile, it gave her a bit of a warm feeling within.
"I'd like that if it won't cause a rift with your brother."
"Maybe I won't tell him." He winked.
Julie couldn't resist him. She took a pen out of her handbag and taking his hand she pushed up his sleeve and wrote her number on the underside of his arm.
Pulling his sleeve down, she said, "There he won't see it."
##
Tim was absolutely frozen when she reached for his hand. Just her touch sent shocks through his central nervous system.
He smiled at her and turning his attention to the others, he said, "Come on then."
On the way home, Teddy chattered on about Julie and Tim ignored him, lost in his own thoughts. Truth be told he had thought about her more than he cared to admit since the night they met. He really couldn't believe his good fortune when he had seen her standing alone at the cinema. It was truly a dream come true.